Dozer
24-10-2006, 07:51 AM
This week we are sticking with Demo Man's random posting of Meet The Farkers......
As a special Thank You to Demo Man for his efforts with MTF, I decided to interview him myself so now we have the dirt on....... Demo Man!
http://forums.farkin.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=56051
1. Who are you? (Name, bikes you ride, job / school, where you live)
My name, as it appears on my birth certificate, is Simon Luke Davies. My name, as most people know it, is Sam Davies. If you want to know how Sam came from Simon, feel free to contact my mother. I ride a Trance 2 most often at the moment, a Trek Roadie, and have just sold my Demo 9. I live in North Canberra, on the East Coast of Australia. I am lucky enough to be School Captain at Campbell High School, and I have recently quit as a salesmen at Mathers Shoe Store (I was getting sick of all the Al Bundy jokes).
2. Surprise Farkin members and tell us how old you are
Are you calling me immature? What sort of interview is this anyway!
I’m a ripe old 16 years of age.
3. When and why did you become a member of Farkin?
Jeez, that is a hard question. I reckon I probably found Farkin while looking for bike pictures or useless spec information on bikes I will never be able to afford – as all bike-enthusiasts do.
4. The inspiration for your user name was what exactly?
Unfortunately it is simply the fact that I owned a Demo 9 at the time. I sometimes tell people a confusing story about an ex-demonstration Kona Stinky, but I stopped that after I got too lazy to type out all those sentences required to make the joke funny.
5. What is your biggest contribution to Farkin?
I guess that would be this thing right here, Meet the Farkers. DHDozer, my interviewer, came up with the idea – and all credit to him – and then I’ve been running it ever since. I also make videos that people seem to enjoy, and promote the site to every MTBer I can.
6. What was your favorite ride of all time?
There were a few Friday night street rides in Civic I have some good (and bad) memories from. I also can’t go past my first Sparrow Hill visit with a mate of mine – what flow! My first Thredbo experience kicked arse too – I was like 10/11 years old, and I think I was faster then than I am now!
7. What is the best place to film that you’ve been to?
So far probably the Mt. Buller trip was most fun, thanks in no small part to SKT. Coffs Harbour was an awesome weekend too, so was Ourimbah…Each race gets a bit better because I know more and more people, so it’s just this great couple of days hanging around with people I only see ~10 times a year.
The Scott 24hr this year should be really, really good fun to film. I can’t wait for that one (you may have already seen the video by the time this is posted though, I hope iy came out okay). It's going to be soo huge, I'm going to get ssooo much footage and ssoo little sleep, and then I know I'llend up spending like 2 full days just logging and capturing the footage.
8. 3 trails you must ride and film a helmet cam run on?
I’m not fast enough to make helmet cam runs look good!! I’m waiting to ride the new Stromlo stuff – that is my #1 place…after that comes, well I don’t know. I know I want to travel around NZ with my bike though! Helmet cam wise, I’d like to do a rear-facing helmet cam run of Mt. Stromlo with Ben Cory and Jared Rando, the two locals pinning sort of thing. I’d also love to do a helmet cam of some Sydney couriers gong nuts, I always love watching those sorts of vids – pretty scary though. And 3rd, well, umm, maybe some super-secret DH track on somebody’s private property, you know, a really rare place with unique flora and won’t be recognized by anyone, but with a killer track that makes people sit back in their chairs and go “wow”. Haven’t found it yet, but when I do I’ll jump all over it (nor literally).
9. What is something about you that few people know?
I was born on the 12 of June, 1990. My father died thanks to a dose of heroin. That’s two, plus I’ve already told you my real name so that makes three!
10. What is the strangest thing in your house?
Strangest? Haha, that’s easy! In my living room there is this ridiculously ugly set of in-wall shelves and a cabinet that were put in by a previous owner to fill up where a doorway used to be. Such a horrible design – definitely a homemade job!
11. How did it get there?
That would be a partial mystery to me too – I reckon it was the same guy who built the pagola-thing out the back (it’s not a pagola, just a big roof thing) sloping the wrong way – making sure that every time it rains the water overflows the gutter onto the veranda.
12. What is the furthest you’ve traveled to film a mountain bike race?
I think Coffs Harbour is the biggest round trip so far – 1749Km round trip…yeah, my mum rules. Tasmania will trump that one though, as I will be there for the National Round (along with every other round, but you won’t be seeing the footage on Farkin after each round, I am working on something else instead – just as good though. You’ll have to trust me on that one.)
13. What is your process to putting one of your awesome MTB films together?
Awesome? Aww, jeez, thanks!
First up I figure out where I’m going, what is happening, and then research it. That usually includes searching for, downloading and watching other films of the same place/event, along with checking timetables etc. I’ll do a bit of thinking, and as I start to try harder I am making written plans and even scripts for some stuff. I’ll also contact the organizers and make sure I’m able to film, and sometimes setup a media-pass or something. That’s all pre-production. Production is next, and can be the most fun, but also the most stressful. Production is where you shoot all your footage – you have a certain window you need to use to the best of your ability – after that its to the editing suite with whatever you have – no ‘do-overs’. Post-Production is what I do in my room, for many hours, in front of the computer. I capture all the footage, logging it as I go. After that I usually start with the music – choose a song that has a few mood-changes and a decent tempo – too fast and it won’t work, too slow and it won’t work. I normally edit linearly, but if there are particular sequences I want to create I’ll do them early and then fill in the gaps between those sections. After editing I render it, and then compress it. Upload it overnight, and post it up whenever I next can.
It’s not that complicated…Time consuming though!
14. What’s the riding culture in your neck of the woods like?
Pfft – I dunno! I don't get to ride often enough!
In terms of racing Canberra is going off – CORC has more than 60 events a year, and considering there are 52 weekends in a year that’s pretty impressive! 200+ XC riders monthly at the club rounds, and 100ish DHers at those club rounds, so it’s kicking arse in that sense. There are cars galore parked outside Sparrow Hill and Majura Pines every single day, the XC guys going nuts, and there are DHers doing shuttles at all sorts of places all the time too. There are weekly group skate park rides, and loads of DJs people keep under their hats. It’s a very healthy MTB culture down here – it doesn’t revolve around Farkin though, that’s for sure!
15. Can you tell us how the Mt Stromlo project is going?
Just watch the freaking video! Stromlo is going really well, but we are still needing lots of people to help out at the working bees – we need literally HUGE turnouts at the last of the working bees to make sure all the trails are finished by the December opening, so that everyone can ride and race the trails in the Brindabella Challenge (6 weeks before the National Champs with great entry prices on all the National Champs tracks, can anyone say practice time?).
There is a huge amount of really kick-arse Xc too, just incredible, I can’t wait to see it polished off and completed, will be a heap of fun to ride.
There is a 180,000 Ton mountain of dirt sitting around waiting to be shaped into what will be one of the worlds largest 4X tracks too – it’s great, you drive past Stromlo and it just looks so massive, it’s actually taller than a row of fully-grown pine-trees next to it!
The DH is just as nuts, huge jumps, flowy stuff, lots of off-camber, lots of the sort of stuff you see in Tony Butler and Clay Porter films you know – it’s a world Champs course, that’s for sure.
16. Is Canberra getting the World Champs?
I hope to be able to say that Canberra will be the host of the 2009 UCI World Mountain Bike & Trials Championships at the National Championships in January. That will make for one mother of an after-party! Whoo-ee!
Assuming that the UCI make their decision based on how well the event will be run, Canberra will get it. We were very, very confident we’d get in ’08, but due to it being dated for the solstice (shortest day of the year, and around the coldest) in the Southern Hemisphere that year (thanks to it being an Olympic year and the UCI not wanting to make those athleets competing in the Olympics have to peak twice in a year) we deferred our bid to ’09. We’re still very confident.
As a special Thank You to Demo Man for his efforts with MTF, I decided to interview him myself so now we have the dirt on....... Demo Man!
http://forums.farkin.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=56051
1. Who are you? (Name, bikes you ride, job / school, where you live)
My name, as it appears on my birth certificate, is Simon Luke Davies. My name, as most people know it, is Sam Davies. If you want to know how Sam came from Simon, feel free to contact my mother. I ride a Trance 2 most often at the moment, a Trek Roadie, and have just sold my Demo 9. I live in North Canberra, on the East Coast of Australia. I am lucky enough to be School Captain at Campbell High School, and I have recently quit as a salesmen at Mathers Shoe Store (I was getting sick of all the Al Bundy jokes).
2. Surprise Farkin members and tell us how old you are
Are you calling me immature? What sort of interview is this anyway!
I’m a ripe old 16 years of age.
3. When and why did you become a member of Farkin?
Jeez, that is a hard question. I reckon I probably found Farkin while looking for bike pictures or useless spec information on bikes I will never be able to afford – as all bike-enthusiasts do.
4. The inspiration for your user name was what exactly?
Unfortunately it is simply the fact that I owned a Demo 9 at the time. I sometimes tell people a confusing story about an ex-demonstration Kona Stinky, but I stopped that after I got too lazy to type out all those sentences required to make the joke funny.
5. What is your biggest contribution to Farkin?
I guess that would be this thing right here, Meet the Farkers. DHDozer, my interviewer, came up with the idea – and all credit to him – and then I’ve been running it ever since. I also make videos that people seem to enjoy, and promote the site to every MTBer I can.
6. What was your favorite ride of all time?
There were a few Friday night street rides in Civic I have some good (and bad) memories from. I also can’t go past my first Sparrow Hill visit with a mate of mine – what flow! My first Thredbo experience kicked arse too – I was like 10/11 years old, and I think I was faster then than I am now!
7. What is the best place to film that you’ve been to?
So far probably the Mt. Buller trip was most fun, thanks in no small part to SKT. Coffs Harbour was an awesome weekend too, so was Ourimbah…Each race gets a bit better because I know more and more people, so it’s just this great couple of days hanging around with people I only see ~10 times a year.
The Scott 24hr this year should be really, really good fun to film. I can’t wait for that one (you may have already seen the video by the time this is posted though, I hope iy came out okay). It's going to be soo huge, I'm going to get ssooo much footage and ssoo little sleep, and then I know I'llend up spending like 2 full days just logging and capturing the footage.
8. 3 trails you must ride and film a helmet cam run on?
I’m not fast enough to make helmet cam runs look good!! I’m waiting to ride the new Stromlo stuff – that is my #1 place…after that comes, well I don’t know. I know I want to travel around NZ with my bike though! Helmet cam wise, I’d like to do a rear-facing helmet cam run of Mt. Stromlo with Ben Cory and Jared Rando, the two locals pinning sort of thing. I’d also love to do a helmet cam of some Sydney couriers gong nuts, I always love watching those sorts of vids – pretty scary though. And 3rd, well, umm, maybe some super-secret DH track on somebody’s private property, you know, a really rare place with unique flora and won’t be recognized by anyone, but with a killer track that makes people sit back in their chairs and go “wow”. Haven’t found it yet, but when I do I’ll jump all over it (nor literally).
9. What is something about you that few people know?
I was born on the 12 of June, 1990. My father died thanks to a dose of heroin. That’s two, plus I’ve already told you my real name so that makes three!
10. What is the strangest thing in your house?
Strangest? Haha, that’s easy! In my living room there is this ridiculously ugly set of in-wall shelves and a cabinet that were put in by a previous owner to fill up where a doorway used to be. Such a horrible design – definitely a homemade job!
11. How did it get there?
That would be a partial mystery to me too – I reckon it was the same guy who built the pagola-thing out the back (it’s not a pagola, just a big roof thing) sloping the wrong way – making sure that every time it rains the water overflows the gutter onto the veranda.
12. What is the furthest you’ve traveled to film a mountain bike race?
I think Coffs Harbour is the biggest round trip so far – 1749Km round trip…yeah, my mum rules. Tasmania will trump that one though, as I will be there for the National Round (along with every other round, but you won’t be seeing the footage on Farkin after each round, I am working on something else instead – just as good though. You’ll have to trust me on that one.)
13. What is your process to putting one of your awesome MTB films together?
Awesome? Aww, jeez, thanks!
First up I figure out where I’m going, what is happening, and then research it. That usually includes searching for, downloading and watching other films of the same place/event, along with checking timetables etc. I’ll do a bit of thinking, and as I start to try harder I am making written plans and even scripts for some stuff. I’ll also contact the organizers and make sure I’m able to film, and sometimes setup a media-pass or something. That’s all pre-production. Production is next, and can be the most fun, but also the most stressful. Production is where you shoot all your footage – you have a certain window you need to use to the best of your ability – after that its to the editing suite with whatever you have – no ‘do-overs’. Post-Production is what I do in my room, for many hours, in front of the computer. I capture all the footage, logging it as I go. After that I usually start with the music – choose a song that has a few mood-changes and a decent tempo – too fast and it won’t work, too slow and it won’t work. I normally edit linearly, but if there are particular sequences I want to create I’ll do them early and then fill in the gaps between those sections. After editing I render it, and then compress it. Upload it overnight, and post it up whenever I next can.
It’s not that complicated…Time consuming though!
14. What’s the riding culture in your neck of the woods like?
Pfft – I dunno! I don't get to ride often enough!
In terms of racing Canberra is going off – CORC has more than 60 events a year, and considering there are 52 weekends in a year that’s pretty impressive! 200+ XC riders monthly at the club rounds, and 100ish DHers at those club rounds, so it’s kicking arse in that sense. There are cars galore parked outside Sparrow Hill and Majura Pines every single day, the XC guys going nuts, and there are DHers doing shuttles at all sorts of places all the time too. There are weekly group skate park rides, and loads of DJs people keep under their hats. It’s a very healthy MTB culture down here – it doesn’t revolve around Farkin though, that’s for sure!
15. Can you tell us how the Mt Stromlo project is going?
Just watch the freaking video! Stromlo is going really well, but we are still needing lots of people to help out at the working bees – we need literally HUGE turnouts at the last of the working bees to make sure all the trails are finished by the December opening, so that everyone can ride and race the trails in the Brindabella Challenge (6 weeks before the National Champs with great entry prices on all the National Champs tracks, can anyone say practice time?).
There is a huge amount of really kick-arse Xc too, just incredible, I can’t wait to see it polished off and completed, will be a heap of fun to ride.
There is a 180,000 Ton mountain of dirt sitting around waiting to be shaped into what will be one of the worlds largest 4X tracks too – it’s great, you drive past Stromlo and it just looks so massive, it’s actually taller than a row of fully-grown pine-trees next to it!
The DH is just as nuts, huge jumps, flowy stuff, lots of off-camber, lots of the sort of stuff you see in Tony Butler and Clay Porter films you know – it’s a world Champs course, that’s for sure.
16. Is Canberra getting the World Champs?
I hope to be able to say that Canberra will be the host of the 2009 UCI World Mountain Bike & Trials Championships at the National Championships in January. That will make for one mother of an after-party! Whoo-ee!
Assuming that the UCI make their decision based on how well the event will be run, Canberra will get it. We were very, very confident we’d get in ’08, but due to it being dated for the solstice (shortest day of the year, and around the coldest) in the Southern Hemisphere that year (thanks to it being an Olympic year and the UCI not wanting to make those athleets competing in the Olympics have to peak twice in a year) we deferred our bid to ’09. We’re still very confident.